Small people have big problems with casting

Comparing the use of full-sized actors portraying dwarfs to Blackface and minstrelsy, small actor Danny Woodsburn took the charge against Snow White and the Huntsman this week. Now he’s joined by the Little People of America advocacy group, who say that small parts should go to small actors.

In Snow White, eight actors–ranging from Bob Hoskins to Ian McShane and Nick Frost–had their faces and voices digitally transposed onto smaller bodies: CGI-small people. Since most of Snow White and the Huntsman relied on special effects, the producers probably thought this trick would be another stunning visual to dissuade the audience from the movie’s boring plot line. (“Like a really boring acid trip,” is how one friend put it.)

At least Mirror, Mirror used actual small people, including Mr. Woodburn, an actor with a reoccuring role on Seinfeld.

Leah Smith, the vice president from the advocacy group Little People of America, spoke toThe Post today about the not-so-tiny issue:

“We believe the entertainment industry, in particular, should cast little people in the full breadth of possible roles…This means casting little people in roles that were written specifically for little people or roles that would be open to an average-height person or to a person of short stature.”

They not the only ones fuming. Matt McCarthy, who heads Beacher’s Madhouse (an all dwarf theater group) threatened ” a 100-midget march to Universal’s offices” in a letter to Universal Chairman Adam Fogelson.

They might be small, but this issue may be getting too big for Universal to ignore.